How to Get Cast on ‘Black Mirror’

As an anthology series, every “Black Mirror” episode exists as its own standalone story. From surveillance to virtual reality, the series’ dystopian take on society’s relationship with technology offers a unique—and often chilling—perspective on the ways that innovation could negatively impact humanity if our darker nature lets them get out of hand.

Past seasons have featured many A-listers, including Rory Culkin, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jon Hamm, Salma Hayek, and Anthony Mackie. Season 7 will have a blend of big names and previous players:

• Awkwafina
• Milanka Brooks
• Peter Capaldi
• Emma Corrin
• Patsy Ferran
• Paul Giamatti
• Lewis Gribben
• Osy Ikhile
• Rashida Jones
• Siena Kelly
• Billy Magnussen
• Rosy McEwen
• Cristin Milioti
• Chris O’Dowd
• Issa Rae
• Paul G. Raymond
• Tracee Ellis Ross
• Jimmi Simpson
• Harriet Walter

Jeanie Bacharach (“The Bear”), Shaheen Baig (“Peaky Blinders”), Henry Russell Bergstein (“The Grand Budapest Hotel”), and Jina Jay (“Bird Box”) have all served as CDs on Netflix’s “Black Mirror.”

Bacharach told Backstage that actors must make the most of every audition.

“Be prepared, do the homework going into the room, and think about going into that audition to win the room and not the role. Only one person can get the job, but a CD isn’t only ever casting just that role; they’re casting parts they don’t even know exist yet,” she said.

The casting director is going to remember you even if you don’t get the role, she noted—so actors should make the most of it.

“Think about longevity and not just landing that part that you’re going in to read,” she said. “Trust that if you’ve done great work, the CD is going to remember you for other things.”

For some “Black Mirror” cast members, the audition process was as disorienting as the show itself. When Salma Hayek was cast to play both an exaggerated version of herself and Fake Joan on the Season 6 episode “Joan Is Awful,” she found it odd to be playing herself in a show she had “previously identified … with horror.”

As she told Entertainment Weekly, “So, when I got a very excited call from my agent saying that I had been offered a job where I play myself, and it was for ‘Black Mirror’ … it’s kind of weird when you are offered to play yourself in horror. It's like, ‘Oh my god, how do they see me?’ So that phone call was already like a ‘Black Mirror’ episode in itself,” she explained. “But then I read it, and I was laughing so much. I was so excited to have an opportunity to make fun of myself.”

For Robbie Tann, who also appeared on Season 6, there were very few context clues during casting as to what the story might be.

“I knew I was going to be auditioning for ‘Black Mirror,’ and I got a scene from ‘Black Mirror,’ but I had zero other context,” Tann told the Dallas Observer. “I didn’t get a script, they didn’t tell me what the episode was about, and I had to sign an NDA even to get the audition. When you audition a lot of times, as actors, you don’t get to see [everything] because they’re trying to hide the twist. So you just have to guess what they’re kind of looking for, what the tone is going to be like.”

Similarly, Cristin Milioti, star of Season 4 episode “USS Callister” and the episode’s soon-to-be Season 7 sequel, said she knew very little about her potential role going into the audition process.

“I was sent, like, a couple pages of the script, and I auditioned for them,” she told The Wrap. “And I’d seen one episode of the show and loved it. I watched the episode right before I went in, and I found out a couple days later I got the part. I never met anyone.” 

Milioti didn’t even know what her role was. “They gave me two scenes. I remember saying, ‘Well, I can’t even—I don’t even know what I’m doing!’ But I could tell from reading it the writing was so good,” she said. “But I had no idea. I couldn’t tell what any of it meant or who I was playing at all. I just knew I loved what I read. So then, when I actually read the script, I was so blown away.”

Netflix reported that the “Black Mirror” team was “deep in production” as of September, working on six episodes for the seventh season, which will premiere in 2025. So, it’s likely the series has wrapped on its latest installment, with no word yet as to whether it will return for Season 8.

“Black Mirror” isn’t casting at this time, but you can bookmark our main casting page for updates on the latest calls as they become available. You might also be interested in these roundups of sci-fi and Netflix gigs that are casting right now. 

For more go-to advice, check out how to audition for Netflix. If you’re hoping to sign with an agent, here’s how to find one.

Develop a strong sense of self. Andrew Scott (Season 5) wants young actors to recognize that the industry doesn’t need more of the same; it needs what makes you stand out from the crowd.

“I think the thing is that whatever makes you sort of divinely you, the thing that you find distasteful or unacceptable or ugly or different, is genuinely the thing in actors that we look for,” he told Backstage. “Most people’s favorite actors are people who have got a really distinct sense of themselves.”

“If you don’t have a strong sense of who you are and all of your idiosyncrasies, it’s very difficult for you to adopt other peoples’ idiosyncrasies. You’ve got to have a kind of weird acceptance of who you are,” he added. “I think sometimes actors feel like they’ve got to look a certain way or say lines in a particular way, or they’ve got to be the worst thing, which is ‘cool’—who wants to be cool, I say! So that’s what I would say: The stuff that actually people appreciate in performers is the something that is uniquely you, otherwise everyone would be doing it.”

Show them your interpretation. For years, Milioti gave casting directors the performance she thought they were looking for, but now she knows it’s more important to simply be herself.

“I, for years, went into auditions giving people what I thought they wanted as opposed to my interpretation of it,” she told Backstage. “To say I regret that is strong, but I definitely do. I should’ve been going in there as myself with my interpretations from Day 1, but that’s part of the learning process.”

Milioti said a turning point came when she auditioned for a CW show with casting director Meg Simon.

“She stopped the tape and closed the door. It was the best advice. She said, ‘I watch you in all these Off-Broadway plays, and it’s why I keep bringing you in—and every time I bring you, you give me the TV version of yourself,’” Milioti said. “‘I’m bringing you in because of what I’m seeing you do onstage. Come in and show me your interpretation. Stop trying to do some Blake Lively impression. That’s not why I’m bringing you in.’ That was huge for me. That was a turning point. I’m forever grateful to her for that. She was very kind with it, but clear too. It changed how I thought about auditioning.”

Take everything in moderation. Awkwafina (Season 7) may be successful now, but as she learned, it’s important not to let your emotions get the best of you. 

“Don’t ride the highs or lows, which is something that my grandma has always told me.… It’s really easy for young actors to be taken away—to be so low if they’re rejected, or [to see] that one opportunity that they think will make it all an easy ride. Everything should be taken in moderation,” she told Backstage. “Don’t take any rejection or over-satisfaction too seriously. I remember being destroyed by not getting things that I really wanted [when I was starting out].… You don’t want to go too hard in either direction.”

Enjoy each step on the path to success. Looking back, Emma Corrin (Season 7) wishes she had given herself more freedom to enjoy the process as she worked to achieve her dreams. 

“I enjoyed university so much, and the same with my first two jobs, but I was so strict with myself,” she told Backstage. “I thought that becoming an actress professionally was going to be the hardest thing in my life. Now that I’ve left uni and started acting, finally, I can relax. I wish I could’ve told my younger self to actually enjoy stuff more.”

If you believe it, you will achieve it. When Aaron Paul (Season 6) moved to L.A. to pursue his career in acting, he found great inspiration among those who were dreaming big—and one person helped him realize his passion could bring him prosperity. 

“What’s so beautiful about Los Angeles is it’s a city full of dreamers. Same with New York: people running away to the coasts and trying to chase after whatever they’re passionate about,” Paul told Backstage. “My advice [to actors] would be the same advice I got when I moved to L.A. from this commercial actor that I met, an older man. He said to me, ‘The strong will survive. If you want it for the right reasons and you want it bad enough, it’ll happen. So just stay strong.’ The city will sort of filter out the people that are weak, because it’s a tough business. It’s a tough and grueling business, but I loved it all, man.”